This invention relates to a child resistant blister package.
The use of a blister package for items such as pharmaceutical pills is well known. As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional blister package 10 includes a blister base 11, perimeter 15, blister cells 20, a product 30 and a backing layer 40. The base 11 and cells 20 are typically formed from a substrate such as a thermo-formed plastic or other suitable material. Typically after a product 30, such as a pill or other suitable product, is placed in the blister cells 20, a backing layer 40 such as foil, paperboard or other suitable material is secured to the base 11 to cover the open area of the blister cells 20. A product 30 is typically removed from a blister cell 20 by applying pressure or other suitable manipulation of the blister cell 20 to create an opening (not shown), such as a tear or rupture in the backing layer 40.
Typically when the backing layer 40 is strong or rigid, gates (not shown) or other suitable weakened areas are formed in the backing layer 40 in the general vicinity of each blister cells 20. The gates (not shown) assist with removing the product 30 through the backing layer 40. The gate (not shown) makes the backing layer 40 easier to tear or puncture for removing the product 30.
While conventional blister packages 10 are suitable for many applications there are several deficiencies in their design. While they provide easy removal of the product 30 as described above, they offer little resistance to children opening the package 10 30. Child resistance is a feature that is particularly desired for unit dose pharmaceutical packaging. Various regulations or guidelines are prescribed for making packages child resistant. In general, a child resistant package must be designed and operationally tested to ensure that the package offers sufficient resistance to children accessing the product. While child resistance is an important feature, however, it is also desirable that a package be designed so that adults can open a package with minimal instructions. Furthermore it is desirable that a package can be opened by adults lacking manual dexterity or strength. Based on at least the above deficiencies in the prior art, what is needed is a child resistant package.